Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts (center) listens to a question about his department's reorganization, which he announced Wednesday.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts (center) listens to a question...

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Police officer Wendy Nash hugged fellow officer Torrey Nash near police headquarters. Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts announced a major reorganization of his department Wednesday July 6, 2011 that would involve making officers less specialized and more involved with the investigative process.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Police officer Wendy Nash hugged fellow officer Torrey Nash near...

Image 4 of 5

Police Chief Anthony Batts (right) listened to officer Holly Joshi during the press conference. Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts announced a major reorganization of his department Wednesday July 6, 2011 that would involve making officers less specialized and more involved with the investigative process.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Police Chief Anthony Batts (right) listened to officer Holly Joshi...

Image 5 of 5

Officer R. Rosin worked in the Investigations unit, a department which will be helped out in the new reorganization because more beat cops will help with investigations. Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts announced a major reorganization of his department Wednesday July 6, 2011 that would involve making officers less specialized and more involved with the investigative process.

Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts is about to face the biggest test of his tenure as chief.

Batts announced a department reorganization this week that he described as an attempt to stretch the department's paper-thin resources across a wide swath of territory.

The chief's plan establishes two coverage areas - East Oakland and everything else in the rest of the city. That's because the lion's share of the city's violence has occurred in East Oakland - including 80 percent of the city's homicides this year, Batts' said in a phone interview Thursday.

It's an unusually direct approach in a city where political rhetoric about reducing crime somehow always winds up heavy on social intervention programs, but light on law enforcement. Batts' plan has no such agenda, and is sure to draw the ire of critics.

It focuses the department's scant resources and attention on the violent crimes that plague East Oakland, and have damaged the city's reputation and adversely affected its economic growth.

Batts consolidated several investigative units into a single major crimes unit that will investigate homicides, felony-level assaults and robberies. Sergeant detectives will now lead four-officer teams in a move that will result in 22 homicide investigators. That makes sense in a city with one of the highest per capita murder rates in the nation.

But he is careful when he explains the reasons for the deployment strategy.

"A lot of the crimes, robberies are coming from Area 3 into Area 2," he said. Civilian translation: East Oakland has been identified as the base of operations for robbery crews who range across the city.

He wanted to combine communities with similar issues under a single command, and there is little doubt that the criminal concerns of Montclair residents are not those of Fruitvale residents.

What Batts cannot say - what he will not say - is that when it comes to violent crime in our beloved city, there is East Oakland and there is everywhere else. It is a hot spot for gun and gang violence and prostitution and is the favored location for large, impromptu street gatherings that have sometimes grown too large to control or police.

"On the far east end of the city, there is more demand, more density and more activity," Batts said. "That violence has an impact on our ability as a city to grow our economy."

A good sign that Batts' plan is based on police strategy instead of political outcomes is that it met with opposition when it was presented to the members of the Oakland City Council.

"I don't think everybody is onboard, but they are allowing me to move forward," Batts said.

There is a real chance the department could dip below 600 officers next year and will need to be flexible in order to continue its work, he added.

"Not everybody is going to like it, but it isn't a popularity contest and it's the right thing to do," he said.

It's undeniable that the Oakland Police Department is counting backward when it comes to personnel. Since Batts took over the department in October 2009, the number of sworn officers has dropped from 803 officers to 637. Under the chief's plan, the department could operate with as few as 570 officers, Batts said. That's one premise I hope Oakland residents never have to test.